War Of The Worlds

[metroshane]

I was blown away...at how unimpressed I was.  I think I was bitter going in b/c I don't think it should have been remade...but anywhoo.  So I'm not sure I could ever make a fair critique of it.  But as good as it could have been, there was one...ONE SINGLE...moment when the movie completely lost me:  when Tom has to tell the mechanic to check the solenoid.  Really?  That's what they're going with?  The mechanic, who fixes cars for a living, has to ask Tom Cruise how to fix a car?  Ruined the whole movie for me.

[picolas]

spoils

this was fantastic and terrifying except for everyone randomly saving Cruise/his son not dying/shut the door! and i'm seeing it again.

[Myxo]

So how is it the guy in the street has a working video camera?  

..haha

My friend noticed this too. Hell, maybe the guy saw the lightning storm from earlier and quickly drove to the scene. There was a good 10-15 minutes before that thing broke through the street.

(I'm saying that the EMP was limited to a specific area where Cruise was living.)

[picolas]

according to imdb boards most emps only take out 98-99% of all electronic equipment. it would've been great if they had made super-realistic looking dv tripod footage when they went for the close-up of that camera instead of the footage looking exactly the same as the movie.

[Bethie]

spoilers I suppose. i have no idea. haha



I was also wondering about that dudes camera still working but who cares. when it fell to the ground and we were able to see what was being recorded, it looked cool.

why weren't the people's clothes turned to dust too? cotton is not indestructible no matter what their commercials say.

actually the only thing that really kinda bugged me was the questioning of it being terrorist. I went back and read about the first War of The Worlds and how some viewers thought the aliens to be communists. ha. idiots.  

since aliens are supposed to be sooo smart they should have known about Brita.

.......

I wish Dakota Fanning was my kid.

[Brazoliange]

Dakota Fanning, Tom Cruise, and his son really did kick ass with their acting

[Myxo]

For a while there this movie felt a lot like reading "The Stand", except with more people.

[Gold Trumpet]

GT says this has no focus or clarity, but that doesn't make any sense to me - it does lack clarity, but that's because of the intense focus, which keeps the special effects in the periphery and puts the experience of the invasion front and center, rather than the invasion itself. And this is a great thing, because otherwise, indeed, this would just be another variant on - well, on all the cinematic variants of the original Wells novel, which were too bombastic to end as simply and organically as the book did.

I disagree about the focus being entirely that though. There's a philosophical context the movie uses to explain why the aliens fail and a human drama behind the mess of the invasion. They are given scenes to show they are important to the story, but no focus or clarity. I thought Speilberg was trying to juggle too many things instead of finding a true focus.

[Ghostboy]

Good point. I think the reason it worked for me, and the reason I had no problem with the ending or the illogical presence of the aliens, is that I was familiar with the story and the ending already, and thus just accepted it all, from start to finish; I was only interested in - and only judged the movie based on - what Spielberg did within those confines.

[Alexandro]

i think is great that this is a war of the worlds not about anonymous heroes, people getting together to fight back the enemy and aliens comingo to menace our perfect lives, but about selfish mother fuckers, chaos, people losing it and destroying each other, and scarred families.

spoliers maybe

tim robbins appears and you think he's gonna be the one to makes us feel all safe and protected and turns out to be a belicose loonatic...

the ending did suck, not the bacteria part, which even if it's kind of dumb works, but because the son lives, and that's completely stupid from any point of view, its gratitious sentimentality---

[MacGuffin]

spoliers maybe

tim robbins appears and you think he's gonna be the one to makes us feel all safe and protected and turns out to be a belicose loonatic...

Exactly.

*SPOILERS*




In fact, the two men that Ray encounters are the types of people he is not: The Perfect Father and a Man-With-A-Plan, Action Hero. There's a certain arrogance Ray has at the beginning, thinking he has all the answers, but he really doesn't: "Are we gonna be okay?" to which Ray honestly replies, "I don't know." His way of dealing with things are, "Stop asking so many questions." It's this mentality that probably lead to his divorce. And as we see his interaction with his son that it's almost like the son is the father, and vice versa. "You're only taking us to mom to dump us off." To which, much has been said about the son returning at the end, and I agree he should have died, but only because it would strenthened Ray's 'Sophie's Choice' made on the battlefield (which felt like the film's comment on the Iraq war about sons going off to battle and the strain on families). But as the film goes on, Ray matures, and that shows in the basement scenes with Ogilvy. Previously, Ray's attempt at being a gun-toting hero ends with a riot and he witnesses what his actions turn into, to which he does an unheroic act: He cries. So when he/we see Ogilvy, he/we think everything is going to be okay, but that was not to be. He's trying to be protector and father when he comes up with the Beach Boys lullaby. But the real turning point comes when his fatherhood is threatened again by Ogilvy; "If something happens to you dad, I'll take care of you." He kills Ogilvy, which is to say, he kills any reliance on others, takes responsibility and becomes the two kind of men he wasn't before.

Also, one comment about the ending with the aliens: Knowing what killed them from watching the 1953 version (it's like David vs. Goliath, in that the smallest thing can kill a giant), I thought Rachel's splinter was what was going to end the aliens. I'm glad it didn't go that way.

[Fernando]

spoilers

My Pubrick-esque review:

worked
f/x
dakota
tommy c
mise en scène

failed
son alive

winner
invader's gadgets

[grand theft sparrow]

My reworking of Fernando's Pubrick-esque review (SPOILERS, OF COURSE):

worked
f/x
dakota
tommy c
mise en scène
pacing

failed
EMP-proof camera
son alive entire family and grandparents' house unharmed


winner
invader's gadgets tripod's buttholes



I haven't read back far enough to see if anyone else pointed this out but I love that this movie played as a "Spielberg's greatest hits" collection.  He riffed on so many of his own flicks but it worked.  Overall, this may not be top-shelf Spielberg but it's near the top of the second tier.

[GoneSavage]

*SPOILERS BLAHBLAHBLAH*

Hack, the most obvious one I noticed was the Jurassic Park raptor scene in Tim Robbins' basement.

[Myxo]

*SPOILERS BLAHBLAHBLAH*

Hack, the most obvious one I noticed was the Jurassic Park raptor scene in Tim Robbins' basement.

Anyone agree that this movie dragged around the time that Cruise and his daughter shack up with Tim Robbins? They spend 1/4 of the time in there.